Wellness Paradigm

Wellness is a concept or a lens through which to see the world at the core of which is homeostasis (balance) and holism. The body-mind-spirit is an ecosystem. It is self healing and self regulating and therefore always responds in the most appropriate way possible in any given time to any given environment. Illness results when we fail to supply the body-mind-spirit with the resources it requires.

What does this mean for us living in the developed world of the 21^st century?

Let’s first take a look at modern humanity. First, our genetic structure has not changed for 40,000 years. We are genetically designed to be hunter/gatherers, moving almost continuously and eating fresh food, primarily plant, and some animal. We are designed to be members of a tribe, sharing the duties and responsibilities of looking after the tribe. Does this sound like your life at the early part of the 21^st century? It sure doesn’t sound like mine.

Let’s take the simple act of sitting. The earliest evidence I am aware of our having chairs is a 4,500 year old statue of the goddess Inanna sitting in a chair. So we’ll round that off to 5,000 years ago that we first had chairs after 35,000 years of existence. And those chairs were reserved for the deities and royalty. Now fast forward to the present day and we have elevated sitting to an art form. We even have terms for experts at sitting/lying about – couch potatoes. Think about how much any of us sits with driving, work, TV, computers, pubs, and wherever else we get the chance. I think we can agree, we aren’t moving the way we were designed to do.

Let’s look at food. We did not start farming until 10,000 years ago. That means our genes were well established for 30,000 years before we tilled the soil. We ate fresh produce and wild fish and game. That’s it. Now go to any grocery store and look at what’s in peoples’ baskets. How much of it has a label? I’m of the belief that if it has a label it isn’t food, at least not food as would be defined by our bodies. Take a moment to think about that. How many apples have a list of ingredients? Heads of lettuce, tomatoes, fish, or beef? If it has a list of ingredients, it isn’t food, it is factory product. I won’t depress you by rattling off a list of ingredients of some commonly eaten product like biscuits, crisps, chocolate bars, you get the point. I think we can agree, we aren’t eating the way we were designed to do.

Let’s look at our community, at our network of support, sharing of responsibilities, our commitment to the good of our society. No let’s not look at that it’s already getting me down. But you get the idea.

So here we are in the 21^st century and we’re not living the way we were designed to. And guess what. It shows.  Chronic illnesses (heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, vascular disease, depression, etc.) are pandemic in modern society and getting worse. These illnesses and their increase are not the result of bad genes, they are the result of an environment that is toxic and deficient. Our genes have no choice but to adapt to the environment that stimulates them. What can you do about it? Change your personal environment. We’ll talk about that next.